A Living Nightmare

[Anzeh]

"Imagine it: a creature made from the sins and fears of mankind. Imagine it: a creature so loyal that not even endless torture can unlocked sealed lips. Imagine that creature being ours. Ours to tame and use. Not even those damn Americans will be able to stand against this one man army."

That was the first thing that Zayn heard while he was being formed.

Both Zayn and Zuri--brother and sister--were created not by birth but by science--the lovechildren of both science and magic. In a lab in Russia, they were created to be weapons. Relations between Russia and China had grown good, and they'd come to an agreement. Recently the Chinese government had been examining the brain's activity and dreamlike states.

It was a single brave (and magically gifted) scientist that came up with the idea. He'd montiored the brain's activities and bottled a dream. When isolated from the brain, it took a form. The appearance of a tiny pixie. And he knew what the ultimate weapon would be.

Now a single dream could only create something pretty much microscopic--in fact, in order to look at his pixie, he needed a powerful microscope. They would need nightmares, millions, billions of them--to make one humansized. When he gave this theory to the armies of both countries, it was accepted immediately. The man became something like a battery to suck the nightmares out of test subjects all over the world.

These nightmares were put into a large tank, and after weeks of curling and screaming and festering, they formed a handsome male with brownish hair and blue eyes--named affectionately Zayn.

Zayn started as a mere three year old, but aged acceptionally quickly until he was 24 by the end of a year. They had feared that he would expire before he was needed, but once he hit 24 he seemed to like the age and never aged another day.

And so the tests began. They learned that he was basically a personified nightmare, and one look into his eyes could trap you in an endless nightmare. Once eye contact had been made once, it was no longer needed, meaning he could trap an entire army at a glance. But they did even more. They increased his intelligence, using their limitless power with their battery.

Finally they had a completely dangerous weapon that seemed docile. They gave him a weapon--a spear resembling a trident--and let him loose in their testing chamber. The room was in smoking ruins in a matter of moments. Zayn was everything they wanted.

Soon, after a few years, they noticed that Zayn had begun growing lonely since there was no one like him he could talk to and that could understand him like a fellow nightmare.

So they decided to make him a sister.

And a few months later, Zuri was born. She aged in much the way her brother had, stopping as she reached the age of 18, with matched the age difference not only in appearance but in actual time as well. Being a later model, they began to give Zuri more power, but...

Their battery died.

Unable to find another that could serve their purpose, Zuri was technically unfinished, but seemed to still be capable of her own powers--some that her brother did not possess, and a few that he did. But Zayn knew far more than Zuri, and was far more intelligent.

Zayn knew about his ability to go into another mode, known as "Berserker". Zuri could enter it, but not under her own will--only when pushed so far. In general, Zuri was much lazier and weaker and in general more... useless than her brother. One day during training, Zayn entered Berserker mode halfway and unlocked all his instinctual abilities in an intelligent form.

However he wasn't able to balance them perfectly.

This caused an imbalance--in fact, it caused him to turn into a complete and total psychopath--and an unlocking of the one ability they found far too dangerous for even their own use.

The Six States of Existence.

Although these didn't change his appearance, they increased certain things about him.

State 1--Nakara: Allows him to create "real" illusions (like appearing before someone when he's miles away and fighting with them); a form of reality-warping on top of being able to create mental illusions.

State 2--Preta: Allows him to use the skills of others like Zuri can, but without the need of bodily contact.

State 3--Beasts: Allows him to summon and control deadly animals, like Zuri's empathy link being taken a step farther.

State 4--Asura: Grants him increased battle abilities, signified by a glowing effect around his red (right) eye.

State 5--Human: Grants him increased strength, speed, and agility. He's surrounded by a black, poisonous-looking aura that represents his fighting spirit.

State 6--Deva: Grants him the power to possess and control others, but only while passed out or asleep, in a state where they could not control themselves anyway.

With these dangerous powers now at his disposal, he was deemed a threat and scraped. Using all of his new power, he killed many scientists before being locked up. During that event, the scientists became paranoid and wary of Zuri. They moved to scrap her as well, but she ran away through the frigid Russian tundra.

Two years have passed since then, and a curious, mindless scientist stumbled upon Zayn, kept in a state of induced slumber since the incident. There were chains and wires and tubes monitoring everything about him.

Excited, the scientist freed Zayn and presented him with his weapon.

As thanks, Zayn made his death quick and painless.

The freed nightmare then proceeded to heartlessly murder everyone in the facility and blow it to smithereens with Zuri's weapon and flying on his own, which had been enchanted by the battery before he died, cackling in the sunset, with only one goal in mind: "I will paint this world in a pure and beautiful darkness. A world war. Or is that too cliche?"